


A Year of Hell Weeks

by keyofdestiny, Night_StormCaptain



Series: Hell Week [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Get ready for a wild ride, Multi, Rating May Change, archive warnings will be added as they apply, okay a lot of liberties, ship list is also gonna expand a lot, we took a few liberties with siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 04:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19099453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyofdestiny/pseuds/keyofdestiny, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Night_StormCaptain/pseuds/Night_StormCaptain
Summary: Twilight High is renowned for its theatre program, a prestigious organization that funds the Bright Futures Foundation, which helps struggling teenagers and young adults get their feet under them in times of trouble.  In addition, recruiters and casting directors often look to the theatre program for up-and-coming talent.  This year, the Shimizu brothers Ventus, Roxas, and Sora will take their place within its ranks, but they may find that darkness lurks behind the scenes -- and even within their own hearts.





	A Year of Hell Weeks

High school.  What a concept.  It had been five years since Sky Shimizu had had a child in high school, five years since her eldest son, Cloud, had graduated.  Now she was sending all three of her younger sons off for their first day at Twilight High. She smiled widely but, remembering the fiasco that had been Cloud’s high school experience, she couldn’t help feeling a little nervous for them.  Of course, whatever else happened, they would at least have each other. Or so she thought.

A car horn sounded outside, two loud, long blasts.  “Lea’s here!” Roxas called, completely unnecessarily since his brothers were both in the room and could see Lea Flannigan’s father’s car out the window.

“Really, Rocks Ass?” his older twin brother Ventus teased.  “I hadn’t noticed.” He swung his backpack onto his shoulders and headed for the door.

“Wha- okay, that was uncalled for!” Roxas protested.

Ven shrugged.  “You asked for it.”

Meanwhile, Sora, the youngest by ten months, ran to give Sky a quick hug.  “Love you, Mom!” He turned and raced out the door before his mother could return the hug, leaving her smiling fondly.

“I love you all!” she called back as her sons piled out the door in an avalanche of teenage energy.  “Have a great first day!”

“Will do!” Roxas replied, shutting the door behind him and heading to the car, getting into the back seat with his brothers.  “C’mon, Lea, why does Moon Moon get shotgun? Whatever happened to friendship?”

Isa Hall, or “Moon Moon” according to Roxas, stifled a snort of laughter, while Lea made an offended noise.  “Excuse me sir, that is my emotional support boyfriend!”

“Since when was I an emotional support anything?” Isa asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re always there for me,” Lea pointed out, batting his eyes at Isa.

Roxas and Ven made retching noises in the back seat, while Sora simply commented, “Guys, that’s gay.”

Roxas elbowed Sora.  “Somehow I think they know that already.”

“No, no, I knew that, I don’t think Lea did,” Isa replied, trying to stifle a laugh when his boyfriend gasped dramatically.

“Gays?” Lea exclaimed in false shock.  “In _my_ car?”

Sora picked up the cue.  “It’s more likely than you think.”

“...I should have asked Terra for a ride,” Ven lamented.

“Wait a minute.”  Roxas glanced around the car.  “While we’re talking about rides, where’s Xion?”

“She, ah, didn’t want to join us,” Isa said delicately.

Lea cut in.  “She said, and I quote, ‘I don’t want to deal with you two being gross.’”

Isa’s face reddened.  “I was going to leave that part out.  Anyway, Aqua’s driving her.”

Roxas pouted.  “But she _always_ goes in the car with us for the first day.”

“You just want to see your _girlfriend_ ,” Ven teased, grinning.

Roxas rolled his eyes.  “Since when is she my girlfriend?”

“Since you met, basically?” Lea sniped.  “I see the way you two look at each other.”

“I will have you know I have a crush on R- literally nobody in this entire world, nope.”

Ven gave him a Look.  “Okay, I believe you.”

Sora bounced up and down slightly.  “C’mon, Roxas, spill! Who’s the lucky guy or gal?”  His voice cracked on _gal,_ and he reddened.

“None of your business,” Roxas snapped, then calmed, letting out a soft sigh.  “Forget I said anything.”

“Yeah, not happening.”  Ven poked him.

“How do I throw my twin brother out of this car and make him _walk_?”

“You wait about two minutes until we’re at the school,” Isa pointed out, ever pragmatic.

“That defeats the purpose, though!” Roxas complained.

Isa raised an eyebrow.  “Your point being?”

“Lea, I want a refund on knowing your boyfriend,” Roxas huffed, crossing his arms.

“Tell me who you like and it’s a deal.”  Lea grinned in the rearview mirror.

“Hey!” Isa protested.

“Hell no.”

“You watch your fucking mouth,” Lea growled playfully.

“Lea, you’re a bad influence,” Ven complained.

“I never said I was a good one.”

“I think you’re all great!” Sora declared, lacing his hands behind his head and accidentally elbowing Roxas in the head in the process.

“Sora’s the only one with brain cells in this car,” Ven commented as Roxas rubbed the back of his head.  “The rest of us have never had a brain cell in our lives.”

“Bold of you to assume Sora has brain cells.”  Roxas shot Sora an obnoxious grin.

“Hey!  I do too have brain cells!”  Sora tried to cross his arms and banged his right hand on the window as he brought it down.  “Ow.”

“This car owns exactly one brain cell, and I have it ninety percent of the time,” Isa declared.  Nobody was willing to contest that, knowing all too well that he was right.

Moments later, the car in question pulled into the parking lot of Twilight High.  The school was a large, sprawling mass of buildings, some new, some old, some in great condition, some… less so.  At the center of campus, the main building loomed over the others at a grand two stories tall. This was where the five boys made their way to get their class schedules from the office and, in the case of the Shimizu boys, their campus maps.

Five short but tedious conversations later, the boys had everything they needed and were comparing schedules.  “Aww, how come you get a fun class right away?” Sora complained at Roxas, who, along with Isa and Lea, had Theatre Tech first period.

“Because Lea practically made Xion and I sign up for tech,” Roxas replied, trying and failing to hide the grin on his face as Lea sputtered in protest.

“You mean ‘Xion and me,’ right?” Isa corrected.  “You wouldn’t say, ‘Lea made I sign up for-”

Lea put a finger over Isa’s mouth.  “Shhh,” he said sweetly. “No one cares.”

Aqua came up behind Isa and tapped him on the shoulder, making him jump.  “He’s right, you know. No one cares.” She kept her expression level, but there was a twinkle in her violet-tinged eyes as she teased her cousin.

“I care, Isa,” Xion assured her brother.  “What is it that we’re caring or not caring about?”

“Grammar,” Lea deadpanned.

Xion poked Isa in the ribs.  “Are you being a stickler again?”

“Of course not!  I merely noticed that-”

“Yeah, he was,” Roxas interrupted.

“When is my boyfriend _not_ a stickler?” Lea teased, draping an arm over Isa’s shoulders.

“You tell me.”  Aqua waggled her eyebrows at them.

“Aquaaaaa,” Ven groaned.  “Would you stop that?”

Aqua gave him a one-armed hug and an apologetic smile.  “Sorry, Ven. They just make it a little too easy.” She winked at the flustered boyfriends.

“Anyway-” Isa started, then stopped short as the first bell rang.  “...on second thought, let’s continue this at lunch.”

Ven peered at his map.  “Where’s H-17?”

“Oh!” Aqua exclaimed, her mom-friend instincts kicking in.  “My first class is in the H wing, so I can show you.”

The two of them went off one way with Sora trailing behind before splitting off for a nearby classroom, while Lea grabbed Xion by her right arm and Roxas by his left.  “You’re coming with me.”

“Oh noooo!” Xion exclaimed dramatically.  “I’m being abducted!”

“I’ll save you, my dear sister!”  Isa sidled up behind Lea and began tickling his sides.

“Hey, no fair!” Lea protested between wheezes as he tried not to laugh, squirming away from Isa and letting go of his hostages in the process.  They made their way to the drama room laughing and bantering in similar fashion, arriving just barely before the late bell rang.

The Twilight High drama room doubled as a little theatre, with a stage at one end, an immensely high ceiling with stage lights dangling from it, a catwalk around the perimeter of the room about one story up with curtains hanging from rails beneath it, and racks of folding chairs lining one wall, ready to be set up on the wide, empty floor at a moment’s notice.

The tech class turned out to be much smaller than Roxas had anticipated.  Less than a dozen kids were scattered around the room, some faces familiar, some completely unknown to him.  Ienzo Bertolli, Roxas’s next-door neighbor, gave a cheery wave and came jogging over. “Hey, Roxas! You joining our cult — I mean class?”

Roxas grinned and nudged him.  “Don’t make me regret it.”

Ienzo greeted Lea and Isa, then sized up their other freshman companion.  “Isa, is this the sister you’ve been telling us about?”

Xion extended a hand.  “I’m Xion.”

Ienzo shook it.  “Nice to meet you, Xion!  I’m Ienzo. Have you met everyone?”  She and Roxas shook their heads. “I’ll give you the grand tour, since I don’t trust Lea and Isa not to be biased.  No offense.”

“None taken,” Isa assured him.

“Oh, like you’re not going to be biased either?” Lea jabbed.

Ienzo smiled serenely.  “Did I say that?”

This elicited a giggle from the freshmen.  Xion turned to Lea and Isa. “You guys can come too, as long as you behave yourselves.”

Leaving the protesting boyfriends behind, Ienzo began the tour with grand, sweeping gestures.  “Sitting on the stage we have Aeleus Johnson, sophomore, and Dilan Meryton, junior. They don’t socialize much, but Dilan’s our best carpenter and Aeleus is super reliable for heavy lifting.  Guarding the props rack is Evan Beers, also a junior. Don’t mention his last name to him or touch props that aren’t yours and you’ll be fine.”

Continuing onward, Ienzo gestured toward the back corner, behind the stage, where a pair of older boys lurked, glaring at everyone.  “That’s Xemnas Prince and Braig Farrell, juniors. Do _not_ get on their bad side.”  He shuddered briefly before pulling aside a curtain, to yelps of protest from the couple making out behind it.  “Lauriam, Elrena, please stop for five minutes so I can introduce our newest members.”

“Make it quick.”  The girl who had spoken had piercing green eyes and a pair of cowlicks at her hairline that looked alarmingly like bug antennae.  She crossed her arms and glared at Ienzo.

Her boyfriend gave her a nudge.  “Come on, Elrena, they don’t seem that bad.”  He turned to Ienzo and the freshmen. “I’m Lauriam and this is my girlfriend Elrena.  I promise she’s less of a bitch once you get to know her.”

Elrena punched Lauriam in the shoulder.  “And you are?”

Xion found her voice first.  “I’m Xion, and this is Roxas.  We’ll, uh, leave you to it.”

Ienzo closed the curtain, but not before Roxas caught a glimpse of Elrena tackling Lauriam.  He turned away, mildly disgusted. Meanwhile, Ienzo made his way to the mostly-bare wall with the door, plopping down next to Isa and patting the ground beside him.  “Make yourselves at home. Demyx is always late, but I’m not sure where Aced is. He’s our only senior, and he’s basically the king of the tech class, but he’s also in The Troupe, same as Lea.”

The Troupe.  Roxas had heard stories about the elite, audition-only club for the best and most dedicated actors in the school from his brother Cloud.  It had been established long before Mr. Leonhart had taken over Twilight High’s theatre teaching position, and supposedly those who got in were nearly guaranteed roles in the school productions.  Not that that interested Roxas or anything.

“Yoooo, sup fuckers?”  In his usual subtle fashion, Demyx Smith burst through the classroom doors.

Lea leaned across Isa to punch Ienzo in the shoulder.  “Hey look, it’s your boyfriend.”

Ienzo turned bright red.  “Demyx is _not_ my boyfriend!  We’re just best friends, that’s all!”  He began slipping into his native British accent as he protested.

Demyx made his way over and dragged Ienzo to his feet and into a hug.  “Ienzo, my man! How’s it going?”

“Fine.  It’s. It’s going fine.”  Ienzo seemed to have lost the ability to form complete sentences.

Roxas began singing.   _“Gay, or European?  It’s hard to guarantee, is he-”_

Ienzo broke away from Demyx to put a hand over Roxas’s mouth.  “Nope, nope, not doing that.”

Roxas batted Ienzo’s hand away.  “That’s biphobic.”

Ienzo sniffed.  “You’re free to be as bi as you want, but I am completely straight.”

Demyx shrugged.  “Whatever floats your boat, man.”  Was it just Roxas, or did he seem vaguely disappointed?

Xion giggled.  “You two are about as subtle as a ton of bricks.”

Before anyone could respond, the door swung open again, and in came… someone.  Their gender wasn’t immediately obvious, despite the neatly-trimmed beard and mustache lining their face. They had short, graying blond hair and dozens of piercings in each ear, which seemed to clash with their conservative button-down shirt and slacks.  Their voice, which was vaguely accented and neither masculine nor feminine, didn’t clear matters up at all. “Good morning, everyone, and welcome back! For those of you who haven’t met me, I am Luxord.  Not Mr. Luxord, not Ms. Luxord, just Luxord, if you please.”

“Nonbinary,” Isa whispered to Roxas and Xion.  “Luxord can be a stick in the mud sometimes, but they’re an absolute icon.”

As Luxord began going over the syllabus, Roxas let his mind wander.  The tech class seemed like a strange lot, but he knew one thing for certain, and that was that he wouldn’t be bored this year by any means.


End file.
